McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act:
The McKinney-Vento Act was enacted in 1987 and reauthorized in January 2002. The Act contains nine titles, which provide a range of services to homeless individuals and families. The Act requires educational access, attendance and success for children and youth experiencing homelessness.

HUD:
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is the government agency that provides/distributes homelessness funding to states and local governments and agencies.

Case Management:
Housing First as a solution to homelessness requires intensive case management services. Case management is a service that assists persons to obtain and coordinate community resources such as income assistance, education, medical care, treatment, vocational preparation, recreation, and so on. Coupled with housing, individualized case management helps stabilize people and moves consumers toward a self-sufficient lifestyle.

Chronic Homelessness v. Homelessness:
HUD’s definition of a chronic homeless person: “In general, a chronically homeless person is an unaccompanied disabled individual who has been continuously homeless for over one year or has had four episodes of homelessness in the past three years.”

Many homeless advocates believe this definition is too narrow and excludes many populations such as families and youth, domestic violence victims, and more.

Continuum of Care:
HUD’s definition: “The Continuum of Care is a community plan to organize and deliver housing and services to meet the specific needs of people who are homeless as they move to stable housing and maximum self-sufficiency. It includes action steps to end homelessness and prevent a return to homelessness."

HMIS:
In order to avoid cuts in federal HUD funding, cities are required to implement a Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). The HMIS aims to facilitate more effective collection and sharing of information between local agencies to identify needs and gaps in delivering services to homeless and at-risk populations.

Housing First:
Housing First centers on moving homeless individuals from the street directly into apartments where case managers provide individualized and need-based services to keep people in housing. What differentiates the Housing First approach from the traditional focus on emergency shelter and/or transitional housing is that Housing First does not "prepare" people for housing before offering a place to live. Rather, Housing First offers a permanent and stable location for individuals to settle and work together with their case manager towards self-sufficiency.

Outreach worker:
Often times an outreach worker is the first contact to a homeless person in need. Outreach workers initiate contact with individuals living in the street to provide information about services and assist with the connection to services. The key to successful outreach work is to lay a foundation of trust and develop a relationship – a time-consuming, long term process. Outreach workers provide only limited direct services. Nashville has only five street outreach workers for an estimated homeless population of 4,000 at any given point in time.

Supportive Housing:
Supportive Housing is essential to the Housing First approach. It is the term used to describe case management combined with permanent housing. This model allows formerly homeless persons to live as independently as possible.

SSI/SSDI Outreach (Social Security Income/Social Security Disability Income):
To assist homeless individuals in obtaining SSI/SSDI benefits that can then be used to purchase housing and secure access to Medicaid.